


Touch And Go

by probablynotadalek



Category: DCU
Genre: Bat Family, Blood, Canon Related, Crack, Disability, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Sibling Bonding, Threats of Violence, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2019-08-06 01:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16378799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/probablynotadalek/pseuds/probablynotadalek
Summary: Once a year, the children of Batman honor a tradition that began with the second Robin. It’s the healthiest interaction the family has, but that’s not a high bar.





	1. Chapter 1

“What’s happening.” Tim’s voice crackled through the comms. 

“I haven’t seen him yet.” Dick scanned the docks. “He sounded pretty messed up, Red.” Dick wasn’t panicking. He definitely was not panicking. “Fuck, what if he’s dead.”

“Hood would never die without getting the last word in.” 

If that was meant to be comforting, it fell short. Dick heard something around a corner and ran toward it. He turned and saw Jason lying on the ground. 

Dick felt his heart stop. “Found him.” 

“Is it bad?”

Bad didn’t even begin to cover it. His shirt was covered in blood and he had one hand clutched to his side. 

“Dick?” he said, his voice a raspy whisper. 

“Oh, fuck.” He knelt down without touching Jason, unsure of what to do. He thought he should stop the bleeding but he couldn’t even tell where it was coming from. “Red, I need help here.”

“Dick, please, I-” Jason croaked. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it out of this one.”

“C’mon you idiot.” Dick said, his throat tight. “You’re gonna be fine, just,” he tried to carefully scoop Jason into his arms, “just hold on.”

“Dick, I need to tell you,” Jason started in a whisper. He placed a hand on Dick’s chest and looked into his face, the light returning to his eyes as his mouth forced its way into a smile. “You’re it.”

Dick immediately dropped Jason, only caring a little if his head bounced against the concrete. “You fucking asshole.” He stood as Jason laughed. “Is this even real blood?”

“Yeah.” Jason said as he sat up. “It’s just not mine.”

“I hate you.” Dick said plainly as he walked away. “Next time you ask for help I going to let you die.”

“Next time I ask for help, check the date.” Jason smiled. “You should get Tim next.” 

***

“Wait.” Tim said as he leaned away from the computer. “I thought it was the ninth?” He turned to Stephanie.

She shook her head and tapped the date stamp at the bottom of the screen. “It’s 2am. Officially the tenth.”

“What significance does the date have?” Damian questioned. Sure, he didn’t know all the nuances of Jason’s relationship to the team, but that interaction seemed especially strange. 

“Right, you’re new.” Tim folded his hands and took a breath. “Have you ever played tag, Damian?”

Damian glared at him. “It’s a game for children.”

“This one isn’t. This is tag to the death.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Well, not to the death, but pretty close.” Stephanie clarified. “This is anything-goes, worldwide, don’t-tell-Batman tag.” 

Tim nodded. “Legend has it that long ago, Robin tagged Nightwing who, after Robin invoked the ancient rite of ‘no tag backs’, tagged Batgirl.” Tim explained. “The game got so heated that Batman restricted tag to a single week.”

“The week before Jason’s birthday, when it all started.” 

“Aside from a brief hiatus while Jason was, ya know, dead, it's happened every year since.” 

“The game always starts with Jason tagging Dick.” Stephanie looked intently into the distance. “It’s tradition.” 

“And now it’s begun.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“And you,” Stephanie tapped Damian on the nose, making his face scrunch up in response, “are wearing the Robin costume, so you’re playing.” 

“If I abstain?”

“Then you’ll get tagged and we’ll tease you mercilessly until next year.” Stephanie smiled. Her eyes gleamed like she was already looking forward to it.

Tim nodded solemnly. “Put the Batcave on lockdown. Dick is officially quarantined.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Tim!” Dick screamed at the camera above the door. “You’re being ridiculous!” He pounded on the door, knowing full well that it would only hurt him and would not, in any way, make the door open. “I just want to shower!” He lied. 

Dick put his hands on his hips and stared at the door for a while longer. Eventually he sighed and turned back to his bike. He revved the engine, flipped off the camera, and sped off into the dark.

Dick pulled off about a quarter mile down the road and started to walk back up the hill in the cover of darkness. 

The biggest flaw in Tim’s plan was that Dick had been exploring (read: sneaking in and out of) the Batcave since Tim was still in diapers. He may have never made it long without Bruce noticing him, but Tim was not Bruce, and Dick trusted his chances. 

Dick rounded the corner to a passageway he was sure only he, Batman, and maybe Alfred knew about. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a figure in the darkness and for a brief moment had to remind himself that he was an adult and could not be grounded anymore before he realized the figure was too small. 

“Cass?” He asked gently into the night. His voice sounded much higher than he wanted it to. 

She stepped out of the shadows, dressed in full gear, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“What are you doing out here?” He asked.

“The Batcave is on lockdown.” She said.

“Yes.”

“It’s the tenth.” 

“Yes.”

She nodded, like that gave her all the information she could possibly need. Dick supposed that, at least this week, it did. “You are trying to get Tim.”

“Yes?” He said again. “Are you working for him?”

Cass shook her head. “I will help you.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “Jason asked.”

Dick wanted to ask for more information on my Jason’s opinion mattered so much to her, but figured neither of them would ever explain it to him. Plus, he had learned to accept help where it was given. “I could tag you.”

“No.”

“You’re probably right.” He looked back toward the rock wall behind him and the hatch he knew was hidden there. “Here’s the plan.” This was one of the cave’s three blind spots. Dick hoped it was driving Tim crazy. 

***

Tim was, by all accounts, going crazy.

“You got anything yet?”

“Nope.”

“I don’t like not knowing where he is.” 

“I don’t love it either.” 

“He can’t tag Jason and Cass won’t let anyone get her for at least two more days. He’s got to be around here somewhere.” Tim said as he pulled up another video feed. 

"He could wake up Gordon." Damian offered.

Tim shook his head. "He wouldn't dare."

“Maybe we should split up, search the perimeter.”

“No! That’s what he wants!” Tim half-yelled. “Team Batcave has to stick together.”

“The instant either of you get tagged I’m ditching you.” Damian stated without malice, a fact more than a threat. 

“Likewise, baby Robin,” Stephanie patted him on the shoulder.

“Nice to see you getting in the spirit, little D.” A voice said to their right. All three turned to see Dick standing on the railing in front of them, hands on his hips and a smug grin across his face. Tim finally understood why the criminals of Bludhaven were so afraid of him.

“It’s just you, Nightwing, and there are three of us. You can’t win.” Stephanie said. Tim pretended she sounded certain. It was easier if one of them was.

“Sure about that?” He cocked his head.

Tim didn’t get the chance to turn all the way around before he felt a net close around his torso and tie him to the chair. It wasn’t the first time this had happened to him. He knew he could get out with time. Unfortunately, time was not something he had a lot of. 

He saw Cass emerge from the shadows and decided it would be childish to spit at her. “I can’t believe you sided with him.”

“I can’t believe you’re surprised.” Steph said as she backed away from Tim and Cass, heading toward the nearest exit. 

Dick swung over the rail and down to the floor in one smooth motion. He gestured to Stephanie and Damian where they had been trying to sneak out. “You two can leave. I just want Tim.” 

The two turned and ran down the hallway. Stephanie was laughing. “You traitors!” Tim yelled after them. “Filthy turncoats!”

“Red,” Dick sauntered over to the chair. Tim attempted to channel all the rage he had ever felt into his glare. Dick paid it no mind and touched him gently on the nose. “You’re it.”

“I hate you.”

“Yep.”

“I will bury you.”

“C’mon Cass.” Dick said. “Let’s get out of here before he escapes.”

Cass didn’t move. “Our truce is over now.”

Dick nodded. “I understand.” He turned and walked to where Damian and Steph had disappeared. Tim turned and saw that Cass had vanished as well. “We’ll see each other soon, I’m sure.”

“Yes.” Tim growled. “We will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want everyone to be very clear on the fact that I work on this when I want to write something ridiculous and it will be in no way published regularly. That being said, I love it and and will probably write more.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is.... a lot of dialogue. more action next chapter, promise.

Barbara Gordon woke up to the sunlight streaming into her room. She stretched her arms above her head with a yawn. She looked out her window at the street below, her neighbors already awake on on their way to work or school. The day seemed determined to remain calm.

Except that this was Gotham, and it was the tenth, and either one of those alone meant that calm would always give in to chaos. Barbara heard the sounds of people moving outside her bedroom. She checked the cameras from the tablet by her bed and determined that it was just Stephanie and Damian in her kitchen. 

A minute of maneuvering later and she was out of bed, into her wheelchair, and pulling open the door to the main room. “Why are you stealing my food?”

“Babs! Hey,” Stephanie said around a mouthful of cereal.

“The manor is not safe.” Damian said seriously. “And we should not stay in one place too long.”

“Nah, we’re fine here. Babs’ apartment is the only neutral zone in the world.”

“Not counting the moon.” Barbara said as she grabbed the carton of orange juice off the counter. 

“I said in the world.”

Damian looked between them. “Why the moon?”

Stephanie and Barbara groaned in unison. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.” Stephanie said, pointing at him with her spoon.

“Should you even be playing?” Damian asked Barbara. “Because of the paralysis?”

Stephanie looked shocked but Barbara shook her head, laughed, and said, “You are, if nothing else, refreshingly blunt.”

“Babs is one of the founding players,” Stephanie said. “We can’t keep her from playing.”

“Dick already tried that, the year I got shot.”

“You should have seen her angry rant, Dami,” Stephanie sighed wistfully. “She tore him apart. It was legendary.”

“All I said was that keeping me out of the game was just another way to write me off as a lost cause.” Barbara beamed with pride. “I lost that year. It was worth it.”

“So Babs still plays.”

“With a few special rules.”

Damian nodded. “Which is why the apartment is neutral.”

“Exactly. Also, I can’t be tagged if I’m not in the chair or otherwise mobile.”

“And tagging the chair counts as tagging her, but only if she’s in it.” 

“That seems obvious.” Damian said.

“You’d think, but,” Barbara sighed. “It didn’t stop Jason from trying to find a loophole.” 

“Did Todd actually try that?”

“I think testing the rules is kind of an impulse for him,” Stephanie said.

“And there’s one more thing,” Barbara said as she pulled a box out of her cabinet. “My reach is shorter and I have to use my arms to move forward, so I have,” she opened the box, “these.” Inside were thirty or so brightly-colored pieces of plastic shaped into small rings with a sort of string attached to them. Barbara removed one and swung it in a wide arc.

“They’re basically those sticky hands you get at arcades.” Stephanie said.

“Very high-tech sticky hands.” Barbara said. She folded up the one she had taken out and put it back in the box. “They’ve got a range of three feet, they never break, and there’s some paint on the end so Dick can stop saying he didn’t feel anything.”

“This seems a little… intense.”

“We’re Bats, Dami. Intense is our whole thing.” Stephanie said.

“Who’s it?” Barbara asked. She moved to the other side of her kitchen and put two pieces of bread in the toaster. 

“We abandoned Tim in the Batcave when Dick came in, so unless he went after Jason,” Stephanie shrugged.

“If you betrayed him, he’s definitely coming after you.”

Stephanie nodded. “Probably, yeah. I’m planning on throwing Baby Robin under the bus.”

“You’re welcome to try.” Damian said as he narrowed his eyes. 

Stephanie turned back to her cereal. “It’s cute that you think I can’t.” 

Damian turned toward the door suddenly. “Someone’s picking the lock,” he said, and sure enough, there was a faint clicking sound.

Barbara rolled her eyes. “It’s just Jason.”

“How do you know that?” Stephanie asked.

“You’re both here, Cass is quieter, and Dick has a key.” She pulled her toast onto a plate and started spreading butter on it. “If someone were trying to rob me, they’d leave at the sound of voices, so,” she gestured to the door. 

On que, Jason walked through the front door and into the kitchen. He nodded at each of them. “Babs. Steph. Demon child.”

“Why are you here?” 

“To support my favorite sister. Dead Robins club!” Jason said. He held up his hand for a high five. 

Stephanie accepted enthusiastically. She beamed and explained, “We get lunch and discuss how to commit murder without Batman noticing.”

“I don’t,” Barbara pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t think that’s healthy.” 

“Eh, what do you know?” Jason said. “I stalled Tim for a little bit, but he’ll be here soon.” 

“Thanks,” Stephanie said.

“We should get out of here, then.” Damian said.

“Not until I’m finished,” Stephanie gestured at her bowl of cereal, now just a few floating pieces meant to resemble the Superman symbol and milk dyed blue. 

“And you have to clean your dishes,” Barbara said. 

“Tt. Fine,” Damian crossed his arms.

“Did you eat, Dami?” Barbara asked.

“No.”

Barbara sighed and shoved her plate of toast at him. “Here.”

“Tt,” Damian turned away and crossed his arms. “I am fine.”

“You need breakfast.”

“Even little demon children need a good diet to grow big and strong.” Jason said in a tone just short of patronizing. 

Damian didn’t stop glaring at him as he took the plate from Barbara. “Thank you.”

“Are you gonna feed me too?” Jason asked with a fake pout.

“No,” but she didn’t try to stop him from opening her fridge. “Hurry up and get out of my apartment, you leeches.”

“We will, once--” Stephanie was interrupted by someone banging on the window. 

“I know you’re in there!” Tim yelled.

“Once Tim gets here.” She drank the last of her milk and started cleaning the bowl. 

“I got this.” Jason said as he walked into view of the window. “Did you like the gift I sent you?”

“Fuck you, Jason.” Tim spat. 

“Move,” Damian shoved Stephanie away from the sink to wash his own plate. 

“You can’t come in here, Tim, it’s neutral ground!” Jason called.

“And you can’t stay in there for more than an hour!” Tim yelled back.

Damian turned to Stephanie. “Are there more rules to this game that I ought to learn?” 

“Oh, definitely.” Stephanie patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here while he’s distracted.” 

“If Drake starts chasing after us, I will not hesitate to trip you.”

“I would expect nothing else.”


End file.
